your holiday annogram

Come hear Ann read Sunday

I’ll be reading at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Tarrytown with memoirist Sarah Bracey White this Sunday, December 8, at 4:30 p.m.   I’ll have new work to share and Sarah will read from her wildly popular Primary Lessons (CavanKerry, 2013), now in its second printing.  Take a break from the whirlwind holidays to relax in the Writers Center with its striking river views.

 

Drawn to Marvel

I’m thrilled that my poem, “How My Father Looked Like Superman,” will be part of Drawn to Marvel: Poems from the Comic Books (Minor Arcana Press).  Recently I found out that my grandmother, Lovrien Price Gregory (1888-1972), was one of the first U.S. female cartoonists in the early 20^th century.  A classically trained artist, she was awarded a scholarship from the French government to the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Fontainebleau among other achievements.  I was surprised to discover her humble if very hip beginnings.
 

Santa Clops is coming to town!

Twas the fright before Christmas

and all through the home,
Not a critter was creeping,
not even a gnome.

The stockings were hung

by the chimney with fear,
In the hopes that Santa Clops
would not come near.

And thus begins this monstrous take on “The Night Before Christmas” by New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker illustrator Kevin “Gig” Wailgum.  Wailgum will read from his delightful children’s book, A Visit From Santa Clops or The Fright Before Christmas, at Breakfast with Santa at the Greenwich (CT) Boys and; Girls Club at 9 a.m. on Saturday, December 14, and at the Christmas Village event at Second Congregational Church in Greenwich between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 15.  Or purchase your own copy of this soon-to-become-classic here or learn more at www.santaclops.com.
 

Winter Warmers

Now’s the time for a hot cocoa and a gooey s’more.  You can get both at Winter Warmers, recommended by TimeOut New York, New York Magazine and ThrillList.  Winter Warmers has two locations now, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and on the Lower East Side.  

‘Round the Net

·   ALTA list-serve for best translated fiction works of 2013 and this excellent interview with the late Andre Schiffrin on the state of publishing.

 

·   Writer Jeanette Briggs for alerting us to one expensive holy book.

 

·   Art historian Beth Gersh-Nesic for letting us know that Paul Werner will give a free talk on his book about the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Fridman Gallery on Saturday, December 7 at 4 p.m.  Reception to follow.

·   Poet Cindy Hochman (right) for letting us know that six of her poems appear in Levure Litteraire.

·   Editor Lisa Menn for letting us know that The Widows Handbook (Kent State University Press) will be available in February.

 ·   Poetry Society of America for interviews with editors of online poetry journals and contemporary poets on favorite poets of yesteryear.

 

·   Publisher James Sherry for letting us know that Roof Books are now available as e-books.

 

·   Artist Angela Virsinger for this video trickery on a bass player.

·   Photographer Elaine Whitman for this astonishing image of a whale breaching in Alaska.

 

Wishing everyone a blessed and holy holiday season, and a new year full of creative productivity.

See you in the new year!

Ann